The Young Master Didn't Know How to Appreciate a Beauty? (Please Bookmark, Recommend, and Invest!)

The three returned to the guest courtyard. Chen Huan and the others had been waiting there for a long time. Seeing Pei Ling return with his arm brazenly around his younger sister, Chen Huan couldn't help but freeze. Once he grasped what he was seeing, a towering fury surged in his heart!

This brat had some nerve! They'd only asked Chen Mei to humor him a little so he'd refine the Soul Summoning Banner, and now he dared lay hands on his sister in public!

But when Zhang Zhongqin gave him a meaningful glance, Chen Huan immediately calmed down.

"It's getting late," Zhang Zhongqin said with a dry cough. "You two should go get some rest."

Pei Ling readily agreed. With his arm still around Chen Mei, he headed for his own quarters.

Chen Huan's face darkened, but in the end, he didn't stop them. Once they were gone, he immediately asked, "What happened?"

Zhang Zhongqin shook his head slightly. "The kid still doesn't know anything!"

"He only went to the market for a casual look around. When Chen Mei and I found him, he was still sipping tea. He showed no intention of running away."

"And it was he who suggested returning to the City Lord's Mansion."

"He's been bewitched by your sister's beauty, dreaming that a beauty fell in love with him at first sight and threw herself into his arms. That works perfectly for our next move!"

"After all, there's a world of difference between blood-sacrificing a corpse to the Soul Summoning Banner and using a vigorous cultivator who survives the entire sacrificial process!"

Hearing that, Chen Huan immediately understood what Zhang Zhongqin meant.

Indeed, his Soul Summoning Banner still needed one final blood-sacrifice offering.

If the offering were a cultivator whose essence, energy, and spirit were all in peak condition, the result would naturally be maximized! The Soul Summoning Banner they refined would be of exceptional quality!

But if they killed Pei Ling now, the banner they produced would be far less powerful!

That was why they had worked so hard to earn his trust while riding the Yin Corpse Cloud.

After all, if the kid learned their real intentions, he'd surely fight to the death.

And even if they didn't kill him, merely chopping off an arm or a lower leg would be a loss for the Soul Summoning Banner!

Yes, they'd waited all these years. They absolutely couldn't let everything fall apart at the final hurdle!

Thinking this, Chen Huan gave a slight nod, tacitly agreeing. But as soon as he pictured Pei Ling holding his sister while she wanted to resist but didn't dare, fury bubbled up in his heart.

When they performed the Blood Sacrifice tomorrow, he'd make that brat suffer every kind of torture. Only then would his anger be appeased!

Chen Huan said in a low voice, "I've bought everything we need. Tomorrow, I'll take him into the mountains!"

Huang Xian snorted. "This is all because Xiao Tasha failed to prepare properly! Now we have to restock in Luoshan City at the last minute. I doubt this will escape City Lord Duanmu's notice."

"It doesn't matter," Chen Huan said calmly. "City Lord Duanmu is famous for being smooth and versatile. Pei Ling has no connection to him, so he won't meddle."

The group discussed things further before finally dispersing.

Meanwhile, at Pei Ling's quarters.

"J-Junior Brother Pei, it's late. I should go back to my room and rest..." After enduring his wandering hands for quite a while, Chen Mei finally found an opening. She wrenched herself free from Pei Ling's arm and hurried toward the door.

"Senior Sister Chen, don't go," Pei Ling called after her, pretending to try to keep her there.

Bang!

The answer was the sound of Chen Mei slamming the door shut behind her.

Pei Ling sneered inwardly. He was now almost certain that Chen Huan, Chen Mei, and the others meant him harm!

Otherwise, setting aside the fact that Chen Huan was Chen Mei's elder brother, the others in the group were clearly closer to her than to him. Every one of them was more powerful than Pei Ling! Even Chen Mei herself was at the same cultivation level as he was.

How could they have tolerated such outrageous behavior from him until now?

If they didn't harbor ulterior motives and have some other plan, Chen Mei and Zhang Zhongqin would have joined forces to teach him a lesson the moment he put his arm around Chen Mei's shoulder on the way back. They might even have kicked him out of the group.

I need to find a way to contact Wu Liu again tonight... Pei Ling thought, then ordered the maid to serve him tea and food.

A short while later, the maid entered at his summons. Pei Ling glanced at her, then narrowed his eyes slightly and asked in a low voice, "Wasn't someone else serving me this morning?"

The maid lowered her eyes and answered carefully, "To reply to Immortal Master, this morning... my older sister was the one who served you."

"Then why did they suddenly switch you in?" Pei Ling asked. Seeing her twisting her sash anxiously, he quickly reassured her, "I don't mean that you're not doing a good job. I just want to know why they changed the maid."

The maid held back a sob, then abruptly fell to her knees. "To reply to Immortal Master, my sister... she didn't mean to reveal your whereabouts! The steward has already dragged her away to punish her. I beg you, Immortal Master, please don't take your anger out on my family! Please show mercy! Please!"

Looking at the maid prostrate on the ground, knocking her head desperately, Pei Ling frowned and said gravely, "What exactly happened? I never told anyone I wanted to blame your sister."

Seeing the maid too timid to speak, Pei Ling said, "Explain clearly. Maybe I can talk to the steward and save your sister."

"To reply to Immortal Master, it was the wishes of Immortal Master Chen and Immortal Maiden Chen." The maid hesitated, then spoke softly. "They said that you'd instructed my sister not to reveal your whereabouts, but she hadn't obeyed, so she deserved to die... That's why the steward..."

Pei Ling's face turned livid. After a moment of silence, he asked, "After Senior Brother Chen and Senior Sister Chen came back, did they ask about my whereabouts?"

When the maid nodded, he continued, "And your sister didn't tell them at first, right?"

"Yes..." the maid replied through her tears.

Pei Ling sighed inwardly. The maid had not been punished for revealing his whereabouts!

On the contrary, she'd likely been punished because she'd followed his instructions at first and refused to disclose where he was.

When he'd spoken to the maid earlier, his main purpose had been to test Chen Huan and the others' true intentions. He hadn't expected that maid to actually keep his whereabouts secret...

Thinking this, Pei Ling said to her, "I understand. I'll speak to the steward about this tomorrow. But you know that Senior Brother Chen and Senior Sister Chen are my fellow disciples. They ordered your sister's punishment, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to turn around and plead for her. So pretend I never asked you anything. And if your sister is released later, pretend nothing happened."

The maid thanked him profusely before taking her leave. Pei Ling sat quietly for about an hour, then got up and took some nonessential items from his Storage Pouch. He scattered them around the room, messed up the bed, and even climbed in to lie there for a while.

By now, night had grown deep. When Pei Ling estimated the time was right, he placed the tightly wrapped Aversion to Life Saber beside the bed, gently pushed open the back window, and vaulted outside!

Beyond the window was a sizable flower bed, followed by a path paved with gravel. Farther out stood several towering trees.

Pei Ling stepped out of the flower bed. Seeing no one around, he immediately called softly, "Miss Wu Liu, Miss Wu Liu..."

He waited a while, but no one appeared. Pei Ling frowned, moved to a different spot, and softly called again, "Miss Wu Liu, I have something to discuss with Fairy Li. Please come out so we can talk..."

Pei Ling didn't dare raise his voice too much. But he called from behind the small building where he lived all the way to the other side of two courtyards, and Wu Liu still didn't appear. His heart sank. Was Wu Liu no longer here?!

Fairy Li had given him a movement technique and told him to master it within seven days. Unless something unexpected happened, this mission would last longer than seven days!

Under normal circumstances, shouldn't Wu Liu stay hidden nearby and wait until the seven days were up before checking his cultivation progress?

Or would Wu Liu only come out to see him if he peeled the skin off Chen Mei?

"Junior Brother Pei, where are you going so late at night?" Just then, an icy voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Pei Ling turned around with a calm expression. Huang Xian was dropping lightly from a nearby treetop, his whole body like a withered leaf.

He landed without a sound. His face, shrouded in the shadows of the plants, looked faintly sinister.

"Senior Brother Huang?" Pei Ling put on just the right amount of surprise, then said, "I lost something very important. I may have dropped it on the road during the day, so I was going to look for it."

Huang Xian stared intently into Pei Ling's eyes, but for a while, he couldn't spot any flaws. After a moment, he suddenly asked, "Where's your saber? Why didn't you bring it if you're going out at night?"

"Why would I need a saber just to look for something?" Pei Ling shot back at once.

Huang Xian nodded slightly, relaxing his guard a little. Then he asked, "What did you lose? I'll help you look."

"A sachet. It's very old, but it was a keepsake from my birth mother, so I never let it out of my sight," Pei Ling replied casually.

Then he roughly described what the sachet looked like. It was the one he'd stolen from an ordinary person that day.

Huang Xian nodded again, then said, "How about this? Tomorrow, you and Junior Sister Chen will have to deal with the flower demon, so you should get a good night's rest. Now that I know what your sachet looks like, go back to sleep. I'll search for it by myself."